Lifeline
by Dixxy Mouri
Summary: Book Two: Angel of Death Fruit. Z/V, some S/N and F/R. Zoro's discovered one of the dearest friends of the Straw Hats is being held captive by one of the Angel of Death Fruit users. Only there's not much he can do as a victim of the Breath Breath Fruit!
1. Prologue

Angel of Death Fruit

Book Two: Lifeline

By Dixxy Mouri

Author's Note: If you have not read the first book in this series, _Deadline_, I would strongly recommend putting this story away and reading the first one to understand what's going on here and to avoid major spoilers. However, if you REALLY want to read this one first because you can't stand the idea of Sanji and Nami taking center stage and you've just got to have your Zoro fix, there is some re-capping woven into the first chapter.

Otherwise, _One Piece_ itself is not mine, but all non-canon characters within this story are.

* * *

Prologue – A Few Weeks Earlier

* * *

The night air was cool as a gentle breeze blew through the streets of Alubarna. Most of the citizens were sleeping with their windows open, and there was generally a very calm, relaxed feeling floating through the consciousness of the city. With the rebellion ground to a halt and the rebuilding process well under way, there wasn't much to worry about anymore.

Princess Vivi sat on her windowsill with a cup of tea and a book, a light shawl wrapped around her shoulders. She was clutching the bounty posters of the Straw Hat Pirates in her hands, sighing to herself as she looked at them. According to the papers the Straw Hats had declared war on the World Government, meaning that, technically, she was at war with some of her very best friends.

"_Fear not, Vivi-sama – er herm, MA, MA, MA! If the Straw Hats return to Alubarna they will be welcomed and not pursued – your father will declare our city a sanctuary for them, but understand that is the best he can do_," Igaram had assured her. "_We will not bring any harm to the men and woman who saved our country from Sir Crocodile no matter what the World Government says_."

Still, she couldn't help but wonder why they had done such a thing. Vivi was positive that they had a reason – even Luffy wouldn't do something like that without being provoked – but she couldn't help but worry, knowing that they were probably being pursued by more bounty hunters and Marines than she could imagine.

No. Luffy was stronger than that. He would protect them – they meant too much to him.

She crossed her legs and spread the eight posters out before her. The first one she picked up was that of Cyborg Franky, who must have joined the crew after her departure. He looked a lot like the kind of person Luffy would pick up and she wondered what he was like. Not that she would get a chance to find out anytime soon. Back into the pile it went.

Nami's poster was sexy and provocative and not as high as most of the rest of the crew. But it was a very good picture of her and looked like she had posed for the shot. Vivi missed having late night talks with the navigator thief – they always talked before they went to sleep for the evening about a variety of things – clothes, books, men, everything.

Now she was probably having those conversations with Miss All Sunday. Vivi was still a little upset over Nico Robin joining the Straw Hats, though, like she had figured with Mr. Franky, Luffy must have had a good reason for recruiting her into his crew. After all, her father did mention that she had tried to assassinate Crocodile and gave Luffy a life-saving antidote. Maybe she wasn't as bad as the princess originally thought.

The poster advertising the bounty for a man known as Sogeking had to belong to Usopp – the nose gave it away. She marveled at this alter ego that the marksman had created for himself. She wasn't sure what his intention with the persona was, but the mask was colorful and he kind of looked cool. She smiled – it fit him.

She felt bad for Tony-kun and Sanji-san – especially Sanji-san. He'd wanted a bounty for a while, and certainly the price the Marines had placed on his head was nothing to sneeze at, but the picture was simply horrible! There was no way the cook was happy with that picture – it was so ugly Vivi almost couldn't stand it. Poor thing.

Tony-kun at least had a good picture, but the bounty itself was laughable. Only 50 berries? Why bother printing the posters? The Marines had likely spent more money looking for the little reindeer than they say he was worth. Vivi sighed. The decision didn't make any sense to her. Why bother with a bounty at all?

Luffy, of course, was far and away the most expensive head on the crew, now worth ten times the amount he was worth when he and Vivi first met. But he was still smiling in that poster, and Usopp was still in the corner of the picture. Wherever he was, Vivi was certain Luffy was happy as long as he had his crew with him.

Then there was Mr. Bushido, Roronoa Zoro. His bounty had doubled to a sizable 120 million, something he might have been holding over the cook's head (a bigger number AND a better picture? It was the perfect fodder for him!). It was a good price for someone like Zoro – he was certainly nothing to scoff at with his strength and skill.

He was very impressive.

Vivi leaned back, yawning. She straightened the posters into a neat pile and placed them under a throw pillow on the windowsill. It was probably time for her to go to bed soon. It was late and there would probably be lots of things to attend to the following morning, what with the rebuilding of the city to deal with. She swung her legs over the side and started to shuffle towards her bed.

"Good night, Carue," she said, crawling under the covers and hugging a pillow.

There was no squawk in return.

Vivi paused. "Carue?"

Still no response.

Vivi sat up and looked around. "Carue?" she asked. "Where are you?" She looked toward the door – she'd left it open for him to come in, but, come to think of it, she hadn't noticed him nudge the door open and come through tonight. She stood up and grabbed her bathrobe, wrapping it around herself before venturing out into the hallway.

"Carue! Carue, where are you?" she called.

Vivi felt someone behind her place a gun to the back of her neck. "Stay quiet."

* * *

BANG! BANG!

Igaram frowned – it wasn't like the princess to sleep in this late.

"Vivi-sama! Vivi-sama!"

The captain of the guard sighed. Of all the times for her to start acting like a lazy teenager, why did it have to be the day of a meeting between all of the foremen trying to rebuild the city AND the day a foreign royal family was visiting AND the day she was supposed to have her royal portrait painted?

Still no answer.

Igaram was starting to get cross. "VIVI-SAMA!"

A thought flashed through his head. What if something had happened to her? Igaram turned the doorknob and stepped into the room, afraid of what he would find. "Vivi-sama! Are you hurt? Are you ill? Are you all right?" He pushed the door open and rushed in, looking around for her.

The bed wasn't made – it looked at least partially slept in. Other than that there was no sign of Princess Vivi having been in the room recently. Igaram felt his heart beat a little faster. If Vivi wasn't there, then where was she? Where would she have gone without telling anyone about it? This just wasn't like her!

Igaram spotted a piece of paper on the desk. "A note?" he wondered aloud.

_If you want your precious little princess back safe and sound, we will require no less than 500 million berries for her return. No Marines, no bounty hunters, no mercenaries. You will await further instructions before you act or else the princess will die. We will contact you when we're good and ready._

_-The Allen Beetle Pirates_

_PS – WE MEAN IT_

Igaram froze, staring at the empty bed. "Vivi-sama. . ."

* * *

Author's Notes

And. . . we're back! Not that long (I hope) after the end of _Deadline_ to boot! And at that, we're starting off with some action right off the bat.

Villain this time is named for a famous author and a famous character. We have the original emo kid himself, Edgar Allen Poe, and Beetlejuice (shorted to "Beetle" here).

That's all for now guys!

-Dixxy


	2. Paper and Pen

Angel of Death Fruit

Book Two: Lifeline

By Dixxy Mouri

* * *

Chapter One – Paper and Pen

* * *

**Dear Journal,**

**Well, we did it again. I think we're all just incapable of staying out of trouble every time we get to a new island. Sure if we're on the water for a couple of weeks we're mostly all right (or at least we don't find something that can't be solved by screaming "LUFFY KNOCK IT OFF" or Nami bashing someone over the head), but once we make landfall something is bound to happen.**

**Now, when we landed on the Wild Isle, I thought this was going to be the exception to the rule. There was nothing on the island except for us and some stupid animals and plants. It should have been a piece of cake to resupply, let the stupid cook have the girls to himself for two weeks so they could watch the ship, and keep Luffy reasonably under control.**

**Of course on day one I realized we were being watched. Luffy thought it was this stupid squirrel we found that he tried to challenge to a fight (and then later made into a pet), but I was convinced there was something else on that island.**

**It wasn't until a couple of days later that we found out we were right. Franky, Chopper, and Usopp heard the girls screaming nearby so we knew something was wrong – those guys and Robin were able to handle it, but that didn't solve the big picture. The cook was missing and in his place was this skinny little girl with the same stupid eyebrows as the dumbass.**

**Turns out we had a bit of a crisis on our hands – not that this is unusual, but this one went back a while. There was this woman named Elizabeth Stoker who ate a fruit that gave her the power to drain the life out of someone if she marked them as a child. The unlucky kid would then have to wander the world alone for twelve years to either break the curse she put on them, or they'd be shit out of luck when she found them after their time was up.**

**Dartbrow was one of those unlucky kids, and Stoker had come to collect.**

**Well, evidently the girls did something that gave him three extra days (being near him or something – I'm a little sketchy on the details) and now they were trying to find him before his time was up. They'd spent the past day and a half or so trying to find him and by the time they found us there was less than ten hours left. The only progress they'd made was finding the Iron Butterfly, a bounty hunter who'd found out where Stoker was keeping Sanji and was leading the girls to him.**

**Oh yeah. She's also Sanji's baby sister. Not sure why his parents would want another one after him but whatever. She'd been marooned on the island shortly before we arrived and had been looking for us before, trying to find Sanji after not seeing him for twelve years. Something about their uncle selling him to Stoker and then going after the rest of her family – their birth parents and Sanae's step father are dead and their older brother, Akito, is wheelchair bound. So she was a little bit pissed off.**

**We got to****the place and split up – I was with Usopp, Robin, and Franky but they got lost, and then I found Chopper and Luffy running away from****the uncle – he had the same stupid eyebrow as the cook and his sister, who was being carried by Luffy and didn't look so good. Uncle****had some seastone powder so that pretty much meant that there was nothing Luffy and Chopper could do, so I went ahead and took him out and got his sword from him. Luffy and Chopper told me Nami had disappeared and was apparently being detained somewhere, mostly because the thing that broke Sanji's curse was a kiss.**

**After that we found Franky's group again and were soon confronted by Stoker, who claimed she had killed the cook. Luffy freaked out and tried to kill her, but her power kept her from dying and in the end everyone but Chopper and Sanae (who was on the ground) ended up frozen in place while those who were left tried to fight. **

**Then, lo and behold, dumbass cook proves he's a cockroach and didn't bite the dust – he outsmarted Stoker with a piece of seastone, but he still wouldn't fight her because she's a girl and Sanae and Sanji argued about it (because they're siblings, I think they're supposed to fight or something – I never had any so I wouldn't know). Then Nami showed up with a gun with seastone bullets and. . . well, that was basically the end of Stoker. The stupid uncle showed up for a bit, too, but he was still too badly hurt from me and ended up dying after begging Sanae to spare him because he was her uncle. She didn't actually hurt him but she was pretty pissed.**

**Through all this it looked like Nami had suddenly developed a mushy head for the cook (she called him "her man" but she's basically had him whipped since Day One anyways so I thought it was redundant) and they held hands on the way back to the ship, although Sanae was on his other side. **

**Anyways, we went back to Sunny for a couple of days before we went back on the hunting trip, this time taking Robin with us and leaving Sanae on the boat (because we weren't going to just leave her on the island – Luffy reasoned that if Sanae got left behind Sanji wouldn't give him any meat). I came up with a great joke about virgin olive oil because the cook was a virgin and it got him really riled up and angry. I was looking forward to using it again.**

**While we were on our little trip Robin decided to join the Touchy Feely Club and asked Franky if he was interested in her. Not sure why she chose him, but she seemed very happy clinging to his arm as we moved around the island to hit different hunting spots. I guess I'm happy for them – Robin's had it tough and she seems to be enjoying having a boyfriend, and Franky seems a little confused with her choice as well but he's not complaining.**

**Heck, even Usopp got in on the Love Express – he's trying to write a letter home to his girlfriend (although he insists she's not his girlfriend, that's how I've always thought of her) and he spent our nights around the campfire with his sketchbook, trying to come up with a draft. We never needed to add more wood to the fire because Usopp just threw all his rejects in there and that worked fine for me.**

**So we got back to the ship after a couple of weeks and I decided to go back and tease the cook about the whole virgin thing again but he wasn't flipping out like he had before and he and Nami started this whole bullshit dancing around the issue thing that ended in Dartbrow informing me that he and the navigator did the deed the night before.**

**Stupid navigator. I could have had so much fun with her stupid virgin boyfriend if he was still a virgin! I got my revenge by telling everyone at dinner – including the cook's little sister (but she didn't seem bothered which was actually kind of annoying because I figured she'd jump all over it). The color on their faces was well worth it. **

**Then Robin hit everyone who started in on that woman and the stupid cook. She informed us that if we tried anything with her and her boyfriend, testicles would be squeezed until they burst and this time she'd mean it. At first I thought she was joking but then she gave me this glare that I think my grandmother felt and most of us crossed our legs after that. **

**So that's what's been going on for the past month or so. We've been back on the sea for about a week headed towards who knows where – there's a chance we're heading to Sanae's home island based on the approximate location of the Wild Isle we were on which would be convenient for us because we could drop her off and she could drag the cook to go visit her brother.**

**Actually I wouldn't mind sitting down and having a drink or two with Akito myself. The sword that we recovered from the uncle was a sword crafted by his hand and it's a beautiful piece – except for the bloodstain. The uncle broke a rule amongst blacksmiths and some schools of swordsmanship, and that's to harm a****sword smith with a blade crafted by his own hands, so Sanae wants to destroy the blade. But that doesn't mean I'm not impressed with the way it was made and I definitely want to meet this man.**

**And according to Sanae he used to beat the snot out of Sanji when they were kids. **

**I think we'll be friends. **

**Either way, I don't have much else to say. Things have been quiet – well, relatively speaking, anyways – and hopefully we won't run into any problems between now and when we leave Sanae either on Cold Stone or whatever port we find that she can get to home from. Of course this ****is ****probably the opposite of what will happen, but it's nothing we can't handle.**

**Better knock on wood. **

**Zoro

* * *

**Zoro closed the cover of his journal and looked back out at the open sea from the observation deck. It was his turn to take watch and it was the hour of the night when everyone was asleep – hopefully in their own rooms, but the swordsman wouldn't put it past the cook and the navigator to sneak off to someplace to spend the night together.

Gag.

After all, what was so important about women anyways? It wasn't like he was interested in men – he certainly wasn't – and it wasn't like he was inexperienced himself. He'd had his own first time with a woman he'd rescued from a mountain bandit – she'd invited him to her cottage for dinner and he ended up having breakfast as well – but he hadn't seen her since and couldn't remember her name for the life of him. He wasn't even sure he'd recognize her if he ever saw her again.

Fact of the matter was, she wasn't really that important to him. Neither were any of the other girls, who were basically different faces and names on the same situation. He'd rescue a girl while going after the head of the man or men who were causing her problems, and sometimes she'd thank him . . . physically. Love and relationships had never factored into it for him. It all just sort of . . . happened.

Though, then again, he thought about his observations of the couples on board. Sanji, for one, wasn't NEARLY as irritable as he was before, and Nami didn't seem nearly as cranky or as bossy as usual either – if anything she even seemed less concerned with fattening her pockets. Instead she was spending more time in the kitchen with Sanji, or dragging him out of the kitchen to spend time with her out on deck.

Robin, it seemed, was a bit more relaxed with the rest of the crew and more willing to show signs of affection – granted this was mostly with Franky, but she still had a way of seeming somehow more approachable and warm as a result. Franky hadn't changed much, but he was kind of an emotional guy already. The one downside was that he tried to write Robin love songs – well Zoro figured they were supposed to be love songs, but instead they were off-key noises that could have probably been used as a means of torture in the bowels of Impel Down to get prisoners to talk.

Suddenly Luffy's desire for a real musician made sense to Zoro.

This didn't change that he was noticing how happy some of his crewmates were with their newfound romances and it made Zoro think about this. Was there something to it? Caring about someone so much that you wanted to spend all that time with just one person? Talk about marriage, settling down, raising a family, growing old together . . . was there something to all that?

By this point his musings had brought him to about three in the morning (although Zoro had no sense of direction, his sense of time wasn't quite as bad), so he only had a few more hours before someone – probably Dartbrow or Nami – woke up for the day and he could go to bed and sleep for the next few hours. Sleep was starting to sound really good, but his shift wasn't up until six.

It was about then he noticed that it was beginning to get foggier than usual. Zoro's eyes widened as he looked around. He didn't think a fog could descend quite that quickly. He wrapped a hand around Wadou and started to look around. Something didn't feel right about this fog.

Zoro left the observation tower and heard several hissing sounds around the ship. He hustled down to the deck, wondering if it was time to wake up Luffy and the others yet, or if he could handle whatever it was making all that noise and fog on his own. _You're messing with the wrong pirate crew, whoever you are._

As he stepped out on the grass, he heard something on the side of the ship – someone was scaling up the side to board them. His eyes narrowed and he grinned. "Who are you?" he asked. "Bounty hunter? Pirate? Marine? Doesn't matter who you are – I won't let you get away with boarding our ship." He stepped towards the side of the deck. "If you leave right now I might let you go."

Maybe.

In a flash, there was someone on the rail. It was too dark and too foggy for Zoro to see much more than an outline, but he was able to see well enough to watch the figure jump from the side of the ship to the top of the mast. All Zoro could do was freeze. The figure had barely bent his legs at all to make that jump, and even Luffy with his rubbery body needed to do something to get that kind of height from a jump.

"Devil Fruit," he said quietly. _But . . . which one?_

Then the man began to crawl down the side of the mast. He was fast, nimble . . . his movements were almost too perfect. He didn't hesitate at all before scurrying down head first, his arms and legs wrapped around the mast. There wasn't a single pause or misstep – even trained acrobats couldn't do something like that.

Or was he just that good?

About halfway down the mast, he pushed himself off, flipped through the air, and landed perfectly on his feet in front of Zoro. He was tall, slender, and stared through deep violet eyes and frameless glasses. A single sword hung from his left hip. "So, you're the infamous swordsman, the Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro. Carrying a 120 million berry bounty raised from 60 million berries. Member of the Straw Hat Pirates, serving under Captain Monkey D. Luffy."

"I take it you're a fan?" Zoro said, raising an eyebrow.

"You could say that. I admire your strength and skill. Although your hair is nice, too. I like the shade of green, it suits you very well. It goes with the haramaki – kind of an odd choice in fashion but no matter. And the earrings are kind of odd, too – they're pretty but still very masculine, somehow."

Zoro was not amused. "What are you doing on this ship?"

"Easy: your strength and your skill."

"You wanna fight me?" Zoro asked, sliding into a fighting position. He moved his hand to Wadou. "I don't know what you think you're doing but I'm going to warn you – fight me and you WILL lose. I made a promise to someone I intend to keep and I can't keep that promise if I lose to some weirdo like you. So just get off the boat and go be creepy somewhere else."

"You think this is about a fight?" The man shook his head and clucked his tongue. He sighed. "Why do you people always think this is about a fight? Why doesn't anyone say 'Are you here to have tea with me? We have some Earl Grey and a little bit of Chai,' or what about 'Oh, are you going to sell me encyclopedias? We lost our volume two and now I can't look up beeswax anymore,' but no, it's always about fighting."

Zoro growled. "You'd better not be mocking me."

"Not quite," he said, delivering a heel palm to the middle of Zoro's chest.

Zoro's eyes flew wide open as the wind was knocked out of him. _What the. . . that wasn't even a hard hit! And he knocks the wind out of me?! Who the hell is this guy?_ Zoro fell to the ground, feeling his head beginning to spin. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't move. He was completely paralyzed, staring up at the smoky gray sky.

He was terrified. _What the hell is this? Why can't I move? Why am I so scared?_

"The fear and the loss of breath is normal – your body is just a little upset it's not getting any air, but don't worry – your body will not perish. At least not right now." The man bent over him, grinning almost kindly "I promise you it won't hurt – it never does. You just seem so confused right now. It will all make sense in a little bit, so don't worry, all right? You'll have plenty of other things to be worried about."

Zoro glared at him – it was about all he could do.

"You know who I am, right? Allen Beetle? Of the Allen Beetle Pirates?"

Zoro continued to glare. He'd never heard of him.

Beetle chuckled, placing his foot on Zoro's chest. "I'm surprised you haven't heard of me – though, then again, many of the men and women who have heard of me fail to realize I exist before it's too late. Most of them think I'm a bedtime story meant to scare little children like my good friends Elizabeth Stoker and Victor Gray. But I'm quite real as you can see."

Zoro's eyes widened. _Elizabeth Stoker – OH FUCK._

"Ah, it seems I've struck a chord with you! Now you get it! Brilliant!" said Beetle, smiling and nodding. "Which one have you heard of? Oh, wait, you can't breathe so you can't very well talk, now can you? You need to breathe in order to talk and here you can't do that so I suppose asking you to answer me is rather useless, isn't it?"

Zoro tried to move his arms – if only he could move!

"You see, I've knocked the breath out of you. Normally a person who gets the wind knocked out of them recovers in a few seconds, but having me knock the breath out of you is quite different. There will be no coughing and sputtering as you try to recover – this wasn't a normal person knocking the breath out of you."

Beetle leaned into Zoro's face and grinned. "It's different with the Breath Breath Fruit."

Zoro's eyes widened, then closed as Beetle's mouth grew wide and he knew no more.

* * *

Author's Notes

There is also a version of the "diary entry" from Luffy, but it didn't seem right to do Luffy and Zoro without doing the others (and after a while that would have gotten boring for me to write and boring for you to read). I might post Luffy's entry later as a separate story, and maybe others as well.

But I'm guessing that's not what y'all are concerned about, now is it?

Special thanks to Bronze Tigress for beta-reading!

-Dixxy


	3. Alone in the Crowd

Angel of Death Fruit

Book Two: Lifeline

By Dixxy Mouri

* * *

Chapter Two – Alone in the Crowd

* * *

Zoro woke up sometime the next day – it didn't seem like he'd been moved. He took in a breath and tried to move – much to his relief he could do both, but somehow he still felt a little funny. He put his hand over his face. _What the hell happened to me last night? What did he do to me?_ He closed his eyes. _Was it even real?_

The swordsman sat up and looked around. Much to his surprise, he saw a few members of the crew around him going about their daily business. Sanji and Nami were sprawled out on a blanket, taking a nap and enjoying the sun, while Robin sat nearby with a book and a cocktail. Sanae was helping Usopp with a metal part of some invention of his, using her Devil Fruit ability to bend it. Luffy was probably sitting on the lion's head, possibly fishing.

"Hey!" he called out. "What do you guys think you're doing just leaving me in the middle of the deck like that!" He fumed, getting to his feet and crossing his arms. No one paid him any attention – the younger couple was still asleep, Robin was still reading, and Sanae and Usopp were still occupied with their activity.

"Hey, Sanae, should we stick with the iron or would aluminum be better?" Usopp was weighing the part in his hand. "It's awful heavy – aluminum would be a lot easier to carry, right?"

The blacksmith frowned. "Aluminum would be lighter but it would be a lot less sturdy," said Sanae. "I could try making an alloy but I don't know how those metals are going to work together."

"Well, you never know until you try, Butterfly-chan," Robin quipped, never looking up from her book. "In the worst case you would simply need to rebuild the part, which is what you two have been doing all morning anyway."

Zoro clenched his fists. "Guys, this is NOT funny! What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"That doesn't mean we want to spend all DAY on this!" said Usopp. He frowned at Robin. "I've got other things I could do! Franky promised me he'd teach me a few things on ship repair!"

"And I wanted to. . . uh, Usopp, what was I going to do again?"

"Annoy Sanji?" Usopp asked.

"Nah, I'm not getting any good reactions out of him anymore. It's lost the novelty."

Zoro swallowed. If this was a joke . . . no, someone would have started to laugh by now. They got the giggles too easily. _Why aren't they listening to me . . . That Beetle man!_ Zoro looked down at himself. He looked fine, although now he noticed his swords were gone. _Did he do something to me after all?_

Cautiously, Zoro started to move towards Robin. "Robin?" he asked. She continued to read, but reached over to grab her cocktail. She smiled as she took a drink, then crossed her legs and turned the page. Nearby, he heard Nami giggling – Sanji had woken up and decided to start tickling her side.

"Oi! Robin! What's this?"

Zoro turned his head and saw Luffy leap onto the main part of the deck and begin making a beeline towards himself and Robin. "Oi, Luffy! Luffy!" _Of course, Luffy! If this is some kind of joke then Luffy would probably be too dumb to keep playing the joke and would acknowledge me! All right!_

Luffy didn't make any signs of slowing down for Zoro. In fact, he was on a crash course. Zoro's eyes widened as he froze in place. The captain still wasn't slowing down. "Why?" asked Zoro. He closed his eyes as he prepared for Luffy to crash into him.

He opened his eyes in time to feel Luffy pass right through him.

* * *

One Week Earlier

* * *

"Lunchtime, Princess!"

Vivi feigned sleep, hoping that whoever was bringing her lunch today wouldn't notice she was awake. She didn't feel like dealing with any of them today, and maybe if they thought she wasn't awake they'd just leave her alone. She kept her back to the door and the blanket over her head – she just needed to be patient.

She heard the door open and stilled as someone walked in. Vivi clenched her eyes shut as whoever it was decided to step towards the bed and poke her in the back. She pretended not to notice, instead shuffling a little as if she was simply turning a little as she slept. They poked her again, this time a little harder, but Vivi kept her ground. Finally they got bored, left her tray on the dresser, and slammed the door shut behind them. Once the lock was turned and she heard footsteps go back down the hallway, Vivi sat up and quietly moved to grab her tray.

It wasn't much. Nothing like what they served at the palace. It was just an apple, some kind of fish and a glass of water. She sighed, bringing the tray back over to the bed and sitting cross legged as she started to eat. The fish was bland, but the apple was sweet, crunchy and juicy, so at least that wasn't bad.

Vivi had been kidnapped some weeks ago by the Allen Beetle Pirates. Three of them somehow managed to get past all of the guards and find her, then smuggled her out of the capitol and onto their captain's boat before they shoved off for parts unknown. They locked her in this room – which only had a small bathroom to bathe and relieve herself in attached to it – and left her to cry herself to sleep.

Officially, they were holding her for ransom. That much Vivi couldn't say she was surprised at. She was a princess, after all; they probably figured that, despite the civil war, Arabasta still had a lot of money, and that the state of the country would make it easy to sneak in and out of. Still, there was no sign of rescue, or the ransom being paid, or any kind of harmful action being taken against her.

They hadn't made landfall since she'd been taken on board, and it didn't seem like they'd made contact with any other ships. It was because Allen Beetle had consumed one of the Angel of Death Fruits and had a bounty worth eleven billion berries. Certainly most people brushed him off as a legend and a children's story, but enough Marines and bounty hunters took him seriously enough that he couldn't exactly take a relaxing stroll through most towns.

That said, Vivi didn't feel threatened by him – even when he came to visit her.

"So you weren't asleep. That's kind of rude you know, falling asleep when someone brings you your lunch. One of my cooks worked hard on that for you – gutted the fish, found the best apple we had left on board, clean water – you're really eating better than most of my men. Although some of them would prefer to drink themselves to death or choke on red meats – I'm a vegetarian myself so I wouldn't know but, well, you look rather healthy."

Vivi froze. She hadn't heard anyone come into the room, much less the man who had eaten the Breath Breath Fruit. He took a seat at the desk in the room and crossed his legs. "Kind of un-refined for a princess to be eating in her bed, isn't it? Although I guess you can do whatever it is you want, huh?"

Vivi turned away. "What do you want from me?"

"Money – that's all we want from your father. It takes a lot of money to feed a crew of this size and none of us can hold down jobs, so we do things like this to buy stuff. Or we just take what we need. But there's a novelty to having a princess on board a pirate ship – I mean, you are a princess and it's not every day you get to have a princess on board and here I've had you for two whole weeks! It's amazing to me!"

"And what will happen to me if my father doesn't pay you?"

Beetle shrugged. "A lot of things, I guess. The obvious answer would be to kill you, but we could make you stay here with us." He smiled, and Vivi shuddered at the thought of what she might be forced to do if she were to stay with the Beetle Pirates. She considered herself tremendously lucky Mr. 9 had not tried to take advantage of her, and even more lucky that she'd met Luffy and the other Straw Hats when she had.

It seemed that her captor had other ideas, however. "It might be nice to have a girl on board. You sew, right? Girls like to sew, don't they? Or, um, you could babysit! Except we don't have any kids, do we? I guess our cook isn't very good and girls like to cook. Oh well, we'll figure something out, don't worry."

Vivi stared at this man in surprise. _Is he for real?_

Allen stretched. "At any rate, I just wanted to stop in and say hello before I went after my next victim. We've been following some pirates who were stuck on a Wild Isle – good crew, I'm very excited to meet some of its members. I'm sad that some of them have eaten the Devil's Fruit, but we're fairly certain at least two of their top four have not partaken."

"What does that have to do with anything?" asked Vivi, her curiosity getting the best of her. _But, two of their top four? What does he mean by that? Most crews only have one or two wanted heads on board at any given time – having a known top four is almost unheard of! Why, only some of the Emperors and Luffy's crew have – _

_Oh no._

Vivi's eyes widened. "What Jolly Roger were they flying?"

Allen Beetle grinned. "The Straw Hats."

Internally, Vivi started to scream. She tried to keep a straight face, however – letting Beetle know that she knew them would be bad. What if Beetle tried to threaten the Straw Hats with her life? She couldn't do that to them! She couldn't put another burden on them! "I've . . . heard a lot about them."

"They're quite famous," he said. He chuckled. "Of course we need to keep our distance – I can handle them, but I'd rather not lose any crew members. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find crewmen willing to work for a man who's eaten one of the Angel of Death Fruits? Why, my dearest Elizabeth Stoker has an easy time of it – she can't hurt anyone over twelve, so all of her crewmen can sleep easily."

Vivi glared. "She hurts children."

"She doesn't hurt children – she just marks them and then she kills them as adults."

The princess turned her head away.

"Very well then. I can't force you to be afraid or amused by my work. It doesn't matter. We should be within a reachable distance of their ship within a week. Then I'll just invite myself on board and see what I find," said Beetle. He sighed. "I do hope it's worth the trip. It'll be such a bother if those bounties are inflated."

Vivi was clutching the blanket underneath her. She needed to do something to stop Beetle from getting to Luffy and the others. If she didn't, then it might be the end of the Straw Hats. _They've taken on Crocodile, Baroque Works, and even the World Government. But I don't know if they can handle this man._

_Luffy . . . Nami . . . Usopp . . . Sanji . . . Tony-kun . . . Zoro . . . please, don't be hurt!

* * *

_Zoro held his breath for a moment as he felt the strange sensation of another person . . . passing through him. It was almost like his body had turned to pudding the second Luffy ran through him, and once he was on the other side his body returned to normal. He turned to his captain and saw Luffy holding out some odd fish he'd recovered, and Robin looking at it in curiosity.

Zoro fell to his knees and looked at his shaking hands. "What the hell did he do to me?"

That explained why no one was answering him – they probably couldn't see or hear him. _But how does getting the wind knocked out of you lead to this? Am I dead or something?_ Zoro sat at the base of the mast (though getting out of the way was somewhat irrelevant considering he wasn't in ANYBODY'S way right now) to think.

Somehow, he didn't feel dead. He checked for the basic signs of life. He felt his face – warm, but it felt oddly smooth. He took in a breath – it definitely felt like breathing, but if he held his breath for a long time it didn't bother him much, either. There was a sort of pulsing at his throat, but it didn't exactly feel like a heartbeat. Zoro wasn't quite sure he was ALIVE, but it didn't seem like he was dead, either.

Question was, what WAS he? Alive? Dead? In limbo? A ghost?

He watched the others for a few minutes, trying to stay calm so he could figure out what was going on. Sanji and Nami were kissing on their blanket and the cook was whispering something into the navigator's ear. Robin was explaining what kind of fish Luffy had, and the captain was listening with interest. Sanae was trying to make her alloy, and Usopp was watching intently.

"Oi, Zoro! Check out this mystery fish!"

Zoro's eyes lit up and he got to his feet. "Luffy! You can see me again!?"

But Luffy seemed to be looking past him, towards the door to the men's quarters. And that was when Zoro heard something eerily . . . familiar. If his heart had been beating, the swordsman was fairly certain it had stopped now. "No way," he said, turning on his heels to see who was standing behind him.

Black boots.

Black pants.

Three (very familiar) sword sheaths.

Green haramaki.

White shirt.

A bandana tied around his bicep.

Three gold earrings.

And the same face he saw every day when he looked in the mirror.

"Is that. . . is that ME!?"

* * *

Author's Notes

Not the most complete explanation for what Beetle did to Zoro, but that will get explained in better detail next chapter.

The really nasty cliffhangers should be done with for a while after this chapter – I mean Zoro's problem isn't going to solve itself.

Now, fair warning, guys – _Lifeline_ does NOT have an outline like _Deadline _did. Part of it was because I wanted to dive right in to this one. Partly because some of the middle part of this story is a bit hazy. The good news is I pretty much know how the story is going to end and the rough path it's going to take and I more or less know where the last story is headed as well (which I might as well keep with the current naming pattern – I just need to know what will precede "-line").Besides, do you think _Deadline_ stayed on track? In that it got from Point A to Point B it did, but it took a few detours along the way.

Second fair warning: the next chapter is going to be HARD to write (it's time to play "can Dixxy balance exposition and entertainment?"), so it might be a little while. I'm already working on it, though, so it shouldn't be too long of a wait.

-Dixxy


End file.
